adminPatrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
GOVERNMENT has moved in to restore order at Chemagora farms in Gokwe South following last Friday’s skirmishes that resulted in the death of the farm owner Mr George Jongwe and an illegal settler.
Police arrested 15 suspects in connection with the death of Mr Jongwe who was allegedly brutally murdered by illegal settlers after he had fatally shot one of them, while attempting to evict them from his property.
Midlands provincial administrator Mr Abiot Marongwe said normalcy had returned to Chemagora farms.
“I hear the situation is calm,” he said. “Discussions on the way forward are still pending. With regards to the murders and arrests, the matter is in the hands of the police now.”
Midlands provincial police spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko confirmed that police had made some arrests, but referred questions to national police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi who was not reachable. In an interview, Mr Dumapi Tutami, who is the Chemagora Small Scale Commercial Farmers’ Union chairperson said order was returning to the area. “A total of 15 arrests were made yesterday morning (Saturday) and all arrested individuals were found surrounding Mr Jongwe’s lifeless body,” he said. “Mr Jongwe’s body was taken to a Bulawayo Hospital and we are expecting to bury him at the farm tomorrow (today).”
Mr Tutami said there were a total of 48 black owned farms in Chemagora Ward 28 and 24 of those had been invaded since 2009. “We exhausted all efforts to seek justice,” he said. “All court judgments were in our favour, but they were never enforced under the old dispensation. We had lost hope until the new dispensation started putting things right and the evictions had come as a relief after years of being treated like second class citizens in our own country of birth.” Mr Tutami said Chemagora farms were pegged in 1975 as purchase areas and were sold to black indigenous Zimbabweans. “As a result of illegal settlements, there has been massive land degradation and the resultant land erosion has caused the siltation of Sengwa River which flows to the Zambezi,” he said.
“A national Geographical survey report was once published which indicated that the loose Kalahari sands of Chemagora have now reached the Zambezi River basin threatening the lifespan of Kariba Dam, whose strategic national importance is too obvious to mention.”
Online Reporter